People increasingly have portable electronic devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, etc. Many portable electronic devices are designed to be connected to a personal computer or laptop in order to synchronize contents stored on the personal device with a storage medium located in the personal computer or laptop. Additionally, portable devices are often designed to be connected to a power source so that a battery of the portable device can be recharged. On some occasions, the synchronization and recharging operations are performed at the same time. Either one or both of these operations is often referred to as “docking” the portable device, typically with a cradle or other mechanical mating device that also provides the interface to the power supply and/or personal computer or laptop. Portable devices that are docked typically have limited usefulness while the devices are docked, yet they often sit located on a desk within plain view of the user. Any features that portable devices do offer when docked are typically primitive and difficult to manage, making any practical use of the docked portable device unfeasible. Additionally, portable devices are often insecure when in their docked states, providing the user with little or no protection against prying eyes.
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.